OK, so which one is "wrong," in your view? Kindly remember that Free the Peeves is an anti-pet-peeve site. I'll bet you'd be as strongly anti-peeve as I am if you got letters and e-mail from all kinds of people who write and edit in all kinds of contexts, some of whom have the strangest bits of misinformation lodged in their heads.

Sorry about the peeve that won't shut up. Its "shush" button seems to be broken. I'll tell the Web designer right now.

I also "failed" the "proactive" question. It is annoying, and usually is used when "active" will do. I've never seen a sentence with "proactive" in it (except a quotation) I couldn't make better without it. A peeve? Perhaps, but I'm entitled.

Looking at the quiz again, I think it was the pooh-poohing of the hit man that led me to avoid that answer. I know the word is in the dictionary, but an execution-style slaying still might be appropriate.

By Jeraldine Saunders... LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Being stuck in situations with those of different philosophies and conflicting viewpoints can try your social skills. Make the best of dull one-upmanship games, and wait to forge agreements or extract promises.

“Proactive” automatically denotes good intention and carries a built-in time reference, a sense of anticipatory intervention. “Active” doesn’t.

Try changing “proactive sex education” to “active sex education” in a local school story and see what happens. (And you can’t just delete “proactive” there, because the meaning would be altered.)

*******

OK, Peter, so “active” is a poor substitute in this case, but “proactive” still chaps my behind. One, it’s just plain ugly. Two, it’s ambiguous. What is it, sex ed for virgins? Sex ed taught by a professional sex educator? By a professional sex worker?! Sex ed that stresses condom use? Abstinence?

“Anticipatory intervention”? One person’s good intention is another person’s invasion of privacy. Time to elect a few new school board members!

Notwithstanding a former colleague’s insistence that “proactive” is a portmanteau from “prophylactic” and “active,” there are plenty of words more accurate and descriptive.